Algorithmic Analysis: Measuring Costs

In this video the video discusses ways to measure the cost of an algorithm or a program, either experimentally or theoretically. Experimental analysis involves timing the execution of a method or problem on a specific machine, while theoretical analysis focuses on elementary operations, which are the number of repeated operations. Theoretical analysis is useful for evaluating an algorithm's performance characteristics without implementing it, while experimental analysis measures specific implementation details and machine performance. Both types of analysis have their uses, such as estimating how long a problem will take to run in larger instances. In theoretical measurement, elementary operations or steps are assumed to take a predetermined time to execute, and different operations may be classified into types, such as arithmetic or memory access operations, to better understand the cost of a problem.